Blog

The Damascus sky lights up with surface-to-air missiles as a U.S.-led attack targeted different parts of the Syrian capital early Saturday, April 14, 2018. Hassan Ammar / AP

On April 14th, Trump wrote on Twitter: “A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!” to complement the strike to destroy the Assad regime’s chemical agents.

The US, Britain and France announced a precise crackdown on Syrian chemical weapons sites in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The U.S. Defense Minister Matisse said the strike plan has been completed, the whole process lasted about one hour. The Syrian side responded by saying that it was “an invasion from the United States, France and the United Kingdom,” and it caused damage to several buildings and three civilians were injured. The Russian Embassy in the United States said in a statement that the United States, Britain and France should be fully responsible for their actions.

If the strike was only in response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons, it would have been more reasonable to investigate whether or not Syria has chemical weapons before taking military action. Regrettably, without such investigations, US and British law bypassed the UN and the countries undertook a unilateral military strike against Syria. It is a practice that disregarded the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and was contrary to the basic norms of international law. The United Nations Secretary-General, Guterres, expressed deep disappointment with this action.

According to the report from Syria, the director of the Pharmaceutical and Chemical Development Division of the Research Center stood beside the ruins and said to a journalist that “it is known to all that chemical weapons in the explosion will release into the air, and quickly spread, resulting in a long period of damage.” However, he and his colleagues went to the site at 5 o’clock in the morning after the attack, and did not find any poisonous gas, but instead found the place they once called home or their workplace in ruins.

The Syrian question is undoubtedly the “pain point” of the region and even the world. At present, with the conflict of interest between Russia and the US, the Syrian issue is at a crossroads of war. But regardless of the conflicts between the US and Russia, as an independent sovereign State, Syria deserves the respect of the international community and the rights provided to it under the UN Charter.